RMS Strathallan sinking a personal account by Bill Aldcroft

Having  finished our Parachute Training and now assigned to C Company the  2nd Parachute Battalion, The Parachute Regiment,  who were  at the time  taking part in the invasion of  North Africa  1942. Off  we went  on   leave 3 weeks   leave. “Wings” on our sleeve and  Army Air Corp  badge on our dashing “red  hats” very new to the Army, little did we know, it turned out to be embarkation Leave.

So, with a couple of  hundred  new Paras,  off we went Scotland to board  the good Ship RMS  Strathallan.   Once a luxury  passenger ship  that had been gutted to carry troops. We seemed have been  assigned to the bowels of the ship where we found row after row of hammocks . Our gear and rifles stacked on the floor underneath.  The art of getting into the hammock is  another story.

Also, on board was a complete Field Hospital, nurses, doctors and army medics. On our turn  to go up on deck  for fresh air (and  to be sick)  we got glimpses of the nurses sunning themselves on the upper decks, where once the first-class passengers used to be.   So together with hundreds of troops from other  Army  units, we sort of got  used to the times  we thought the ship was going to rollover  in a storm and into the sunshine when it was our turn on deck.  We were  allocated   “boat stations”, but  there weren’t any boats. We all had what was called, ‘May Wests’ lifejackets,  made  of stuffed Kapok .   When we passed the  Rock of Gibraltar, we were just a few days out from for Algiers, our disembarking port.

Laying in our hammocks at  about 3 in the morning there  was an almighty ‘Bang’ and the ship just shuddered,   The  alarm when off  and so did the lights.   But the emergency  lights came on the ship was still upright .

 As we slept in our Uniforms,  we fell off our hammocks (as  usual),  put on  our boots  unlaced,  grabbed our riles and a bandolier of ammo  put on our May Wests , stood by our  kit. We were  ordered to  file out up our  boat station, in a very orderly  fashion. The ship  just seemed to have stopped  when we got to deck, all the other ships in the convoy had gone, we were alone.  The ship  started to lean over and the life boats were  launched.  As I recall  the Hospital staff  had been allocated  places on them.  And they were hanging around. The ship was listing to one side, but  it was still afloat .

To cut a long story  short the  Navy Destroyers  returned   just about in time to start  taking  the troops off ,  as the ship was now listing very badly   Our turn to get rescued  came and we  were forced to jump off on to the deck of the destroyer  ( feet together)  it was bobbing up and  down sometimes well below. We had to wait till the waves brought it up to a reasonable height  before to took a chance.  We watched the Strathallan   sink  Think it was a miracle that all passengers  and crew were saved

Then we were offloaded in Oran,  Morocco  and by train to Algiers where we had to Camp   to be  re equipped  where we spent Christmas  before joining C  Company. We went by train to Beja. Where what was left of C Coy were camped.

We came under shell fire as we were getting off the train.  My first  time in action.  I dived under  railway wagon. Sadly, some of the lads were killed  or wounded  The first of many that never went home.

Then I spent the next 5 months with C Coy fighting as infantry  in the Atlas Mountains.  I had my 21st Birthday in a trench wet and cold. I think I would be one of the few  paratroopers in the World to be shipwrecked.        

Bill Aldcroft